MeloManiac

My daughter is 9 and she has one of those rotating coloured lamps lightballs in her room. Remember those? Turns her room instantly into a Disco! Saturday Night Feever, The Bee Gees, John Travolta.... Verstuurd vanaf mijn 5047U met Tapatalk

This is a poll about upgrading a budget system. What path is the best one to increase sound quality?

It's an Ortofon OM10 cartridge. https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/george-harrison-recordplayer/ It sounds pretty amazing with some well-mastered vinyl. When doing direct comparisons with streaming (mp3 at 320kbps), the vinyl sounds better, esp. in the low frequencies. Except for the dust and the scratches, of course. I've spent quite some time making comparisons, which is easy with the switch. To be honest, upgrading the cartridge hadn't come to mind yet, I am more like looking to upgrade the phono stage. Now it is a €40 China made one, and it does its job pretty well. But I'm curious about what the increase in quality would be like if I bought a hifi-qualified one, like one of these: https://www.project-audio.com/en/product/phono-box-e/ or these higher end ones: https://www.project-audio.com/en/category/hifi-electronics/s2-line/phono-s2-line/

Depending on your budget, I'd opt for one of the Pro-ject pre-amps listed here: https://www.pro-jectusa.com/en-us/products/pro-ject-box-designs/phono-boxes If you want to stay with the Klipsch brand, a Klipsch Powergate is great value for money. It can be used as a Class D amp on its own (with wireless capabilities and a lot of other connections too, even a built in DAC), but it can also be used as a phono stage, because it also has rca-out. https://www.klipsch.com/products/powergate

Wise of you to have kept it. A while ago I had to empty my parents' home when my dad passed away. I left behind my Dual amp and turntable and speakers from the time I was a student. I actually forgot it was still on their attic. They also had kept an old Philips furniture with tube amp, radio and pick-up. All in a beautiful vintage style. I would eat my shoe if I could turn back time and load them in my minivan and bring them home... I actually left them behind consciously for the buyer of the house as a 'treat'. Soon after I saw the Philips furniture at a local action site. When the bidding got to 300 euro's, I stopped following because it broke my heart... Not so much for the money, but for the emotional value. Like I said, it was very wise ti keep your stuff.... Verstuurd vanaf mijn 5047U met Tapatalk

This is my setup. I'm a beginner, obviously. No high-end gear. The amp I use now is the 3.5 Watt TubeCube 7 combined with the RP160M. (The smaller, hybrid amp next to it was there for comparison/testing, and has now migrated to another room.) Klipsch RP160M speakers TubeCube 7 | Tube upgrade: Sovtek 12AX7-LPS (longplates) and Sovtek EL84M Pro-Ject Essential III - George Harrison special edition + phono-stage a switch (4 in, one out) a Amazon Fire 7 for streaming (cable-connected to the switch) a brandless cd/dvd player (it also has usb-in and a cardreader)

Nice setup. Just my two cents. I 'd put the McIntosh on the center wooden cabinet and make it the centerpiece/showpiece of the whole setup. I'd put the turntable next to it. Better stability for both like that too. Mount the tv set a bit higher on the wall. What is the wooden box (speaker?) on top of the left Forte?

A while ago I discovered Siegfried Linkwitz and his speakers. Both in the US and in Europe, you can buy his DIY kits. The LX521.4 is the flag ship of the line-up. The components are around $2,100 and then you must add $3,000 for the 'powerbox' (an advanced DSP). Mr Linkwitz agrees with you here... According to some, this speaker set is one of the best in the world. The price doesn't include the cabinet (a blueprint is provided though), but does include a license to build the speaker and a step by step manual, and the speaker specific code for the 'powerbox'. https://www.magiclx521.com/epages/17940394.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/17940394/Products/"LX521 kit" PowerBox 6pro NCore with Hypex DLCP digital signal processor. All you need between your music source (CD, vinyl, BluetoothAP, SOONOS;......) and your speakers PowerBox = Preamp & ADC & DSP & 6 DACs & 6 Hypex power amplifiers Tailored performance: 2x100W, 2x125W, 2x250W, all 2Ohms capable! Slim & quiet, fan-less design. Massive 3mm full aluminum case with stainless steel front plate. Dimensions ca 44 x 36 x 5,5 cm Professional high current SpeakON output: Two SpeakONs replace 12 (!) “banana” plugs High End Hypex DSP with carefully designed clock-, DAC- and analogue output stages. Balanced signal from input to output, remote volume control. LXspeaker owners get preloaded filter sets (LXmini, LXmini+2, LXstudio). LX521.4 needs two of these PowerBoxes, a MASTER and a FOLLOWER unit. IN: analog balanced XLR, digital RCA, optical, AES XLR & RJ45, USB for individual filter, gain, delay and inv. programming! Free Hypex Filter Design software for any speaker project.

Once the eprom on the Beocrate is flashed, it can operate without the raspberry pi (but it will need power). I'm 99% sure the Beocrate also uses the SHARC processor. The hifi sound quality of the beocrate add on should be far superior to the sound quality of the raspberry pi itself. This is the more elaborate video, step by step. It seems pretty do-able. The SD-card that is used here, I guess, is configured with presets for this specific speaker. For Klipsch speakers, they have a 'safe' standard setting that then can be fine-tuned by the user in SigmaStudio.

I came across the Beocreate 4-channel amplifier. https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/beocreate-4-channel-amplifier-review/ https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/beocreate/beocreate-4-channel-amplifier/ https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/evaluation-hardware-and-software/software/ss_sigst_02.html#software-overview As far as I understand, together with a Raspberry Pi, it can be used as a full blown digital amplifier. But what makes it even more interesting, imho, is that it can also be used as a fully programmable, digital crossover. It was originally conceived for B&O speakers, but according to the review, it will work with any passive speaker: "(...) it supports the creation of DSP ‘profiles’ using the provided SigmaStudio software. You can play endlessly with crossover frequencies and filters, create a setup you like, and then store it on the Beocreate so anything playing on the Pi uses it. This is a level of control that can only have been imagined just a few years ago." The review concludes: "An audiophile’s dream, the Beocreate is the missing link between the worlds of classic high-end speakers and modern streaming technology." So I'm curious: could this tiny thing be used to upgrade classic Klipsch speakers too? I'd love to hear what crossover specialist think of this.

Have you checked if there's been a firmware upgrade for your Marantz device? You'll need the serial number to check that.

I use Qobuz in a Firefox browser window to stream it. It sounds just fine. On my phone I use the Qobuz app. I am streaming to an old Onkyo amp. I use a clone of Logitech bluetooth receiver. The clone cost €18, the original is €21. For downloaded files, I like VLC Mediaplayer because it is cross platform: I have it on my Linux laptop, on my video editing desktop machine, and even on my Android phone and Amazon Fire tablet. It is free. On Linux, I also like Clementine, which seems to be less known, but does a really good job. It even runs on a Raspberry Pi. I'm not sure about Audirvana+. Never heard of it before. VLC Mediaplayer has been around for... 15 years - just a guess. Experience has taught me that many of these new pay-for media players are basically nothing more than an adapted graphics user interface. Once you start looking under the hood, there is little or nothing of new or added technology that isn't already running in the background of your device. On the contrary, I 'm reluctant to use these paying programs, because I'm afraid of the exotic codecs they may install, messing up a clean install of standard codecs. Some of them are nothing less than the front of scheme for luring consumers into a subscription and then they hijack your system and your media files. I have three suggestions: conservative: install VLC Mediaplayer on your Windows mini-pc: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.nl.html adventurous: download Ubuntu and install it on a usb-stick. Run it on your mini-pc. 99% chance your hardware will be compatible with it.Give it a try for a couple of days. After that, you can always return to Windows, but it is likely you'll throw Windows out and do a full install of Ubuntu: https://ubuntustudio.org/download/ challenge: build your own media center with a Raspberry Pi + hifi add-on (built in DAC): https://thepihut.com/products/hifiberry-dac-dsp

I live in Europe, where Klipsch Heritage speakers are rather expensive and pre-owned ones extremely rare. If it wasn't for that, I'd definitely go for Heresy speakers. But instead, I have to do with my RP160Ms, which are more affordable. I have always loved music, but it's only recently that I started being interested in better than average gear. The RP160M speakers certainly allow to discover good music and they are a great introduction to the world of 'tube rolling'.

@Chris A: Thank you so much for taking a look a this. Although some of it is way beyond me technically, it is nice that your analysis confirms what my ears are hearing... Just to clarify for those who are not familiar with 'Coupe de Ville': it is a slow, fusion-jazzy blues song with a very slow bass line. So few low notes, but they are so noticeable because they are so very low. I guess the song makes the RP160Ms to produce the lowest notes they can generate, at least that's how it sounds to me. I've heard them before, but then they were synth generated. On 'Coupe de Ville', it is bassist Rick Rosas, of course. If you listen to this youtube vid on laptop speakers, like I'm doing right now, of course, the bass line is totally gone and absent. Many people consider this album to be far underrated and especially on vinyl, one of the best recorded Neil Young albums. It was a flop at the box office, though. I have had a European first pressing since it came out in 1988. It is in mint condition. I thought I had a real money maker in my collection... but then I discovered that it can easily be bought in mint condition for less than €20... pfffft. As it happens, today a package arrived with better tubes for my TubeCube 7 amp. So I replaced its standard Chinese tubes with Russian tubes: a Sovtek 12AX7LPS (longer plates) pre-amp tube, and a pair of matched Sovtek EL84Ms (M stands for military grade). The impact of these tubes is rather great. The stereo effect is much more pronounced. And, more relevant here, the bass notes are much more refined. I find it difficult to put into words, but with these tubes I can hear the timbre of the instrument, while this is less so with the standard tubes. I have been listening all evening to a whole variety of music (Toots Thielemans' harmonica playing, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time by The Nothing Hillbillies - which also has a very present bass, Neil Young, of course, Marvin Gay's What's going on, The Last Samurai Soundtrack etc). And the listening experience has dramatically improved and I have discovered all kinds of new details. I know, it is a cliché, but it is true. The only reason I quit listening is because the wife and kids wanted to go to bed... One final thought: it is often the fault of the mixing, or mastering, when a recording is 'bad', some of you have pointed out. I can only agree with that. However, it can also be a deliberate choice of the artist mix the bass away to the background. I know from a documentary that this was the case for David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. They explain Bowie wanted all the attention of the public focused on himself and lead-guitar player Mick Ronson. He didn't care very much for the base line, so it was barely heard.

In photography - hence my name - there's a saying: you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ears... Which basically means you can't turn a bad raw picture into a good one by applying lot's of effects and photoshop. A picture that is already good you can make a bit better, though. I guess it is the same with records. Conversely, a well recorded, well mixed and well mastered song will sound amazing, even on a humble sound system, and it will shine on higher-end gear.

My system is a TubeCube 7 with RP160M speakers. I don'use a sub. No equaliser either. So it pretty much plays the music as it was recorded. From time to time I come across recordings with remarkable, pleasant low end quality. Neil Young's This note 's for you, for example. Especialy the tracks Coupe de ville, Can't believe your lyin' and One thing have formidable bass. On vinyl it is even better. Keb' Mo' his That hot pink blues album - live also sounds really good in the lows. My favourite song is More than one way home. Being non-tech, I wonder what magic was used here...

Short answer: no. Long answer: Your Onkyo receiver is redundant. With the provided speaker cable, you connect the righ speaker (the powered one) to the left one. There is no need for a receiver/amp as the powered speaker has that (and much more). If you have - next to your turntable - other analogue rca input devices, like a cd player and a tape player, you can buy a 'switch' for them and connect the switch to the powered speaker through the AUX input. I have a switch that cost about 20 dollars (it has 1 mini-jack input and 3 rca inputs): https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000MMLOJM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You'll need a cable that has rca on one side and mini-jack on the other, to connect the switch to the powered speaker's mini-jack input.

I thought he said 'long term listening' but I'm no native speaker of English and sometimes I found it really hard to understand, even with the messed up auto subtitling on... Other than that, I agree with your argumentation. It is Fremer who raises the topic of double-blind testing, and Mr. Linkwitz is such a kind person he doesn't take on M. Fremer for it. That's just my non-tech brain trying to paraphrase a complex subject matter, and perhaps jumping to conclusions. It is a fact that we do hear instantly if a record is well mastered and mixed. We don't need a double blind test to detect that.... Both of them do seem to agree on the fact that 'perfect visual graphs' do not always sound great. The hearing brain is a totally different circuit, independent of the visual brain. What is esthetically attratictive visually (a nice curve), doesn't garantee the best sound quality. That 's what my non-tech brain understood from it.

"Maybe, if it is good enough for me..." Not your regular talk about loudspeakers and especially crossovers. Be prepared for the mental blow you'll get from second one in this video and onwards. Michael Fremer talks to Siegfried Linkwitz from his sickbed. Siegfried died some days/weeks later. RIP. More about the crossovers here: http://www.linkwitzlab.com/crossovers.htm There is a funny moment when Fremer stands corrected at 18:27: "Your (listening) room has no treatment at all." Linkwitz: "No, that's not true. There are bookshelves in backwall, which are diffusing energy. There is the chimney, on one side there are the CDs, again a diffusing element. I do not want to lose energy." He then continues about the importance of the windows in his room. And then there is the section about the importance of listening/hearing: what the eye sees ( a nice curve or line in the graph), doesn't necessarily sound nice. And the uselessness of double blind testing: Linkwitz (and Fremer) agree: Our 'hearing brain' works instantly, if not, in neo-darwinistic terms, man would have been eaten too often by tigers and would not have survived to modern times. In short: trust your ears, and if it is good enough for you... enjoy the music!

Makes me think of The Impossible Project in photography. When Polaroid went out of business, fans bought the machines and restarted production of polaroid film. Unfortunately they didn't have the chemistry formulas so they had back-engineer it. Hence their name, impossible... https://us.polaroidoriginals.com/pages/about-us Verstuurd vanaf mijn 5047U met Tapatalk

This is my 'dream team'. Congratulations!

A collaboration of Klipsch and WE to produce a Klipsch tube amp would be a bestseller!

They say they have all the schematics and all the machines. This is not rocket science! There is a need for young people to find their way to this place, and I mean young workforce and young customers. I only see old guys in the video (like me...)